3 ms·
Copyright law is ridiculous and needs to be reformed immediately. We should give up the battle with Disney. They have billions of dollars to throw at politicia
by Houshalter 10y ago
Copyright law is ridiculous and needs to be reformed immediately.
We should give up the battle with Disney. They have billions of dollars to throw at politicians and lobbyists to ensure the Mouse never goes out of copyright (even though they treat it more as a trademark, and couldn't care less whether people watch the original steamboat willy cartoons on youtube.)
But scientific research is different. Nonfiction work in general is different. Why should vastly different categories of works, with different values to society, economics, etc, be treated the same by copyright law?
I propose we vastly decrease the restrictions of copyright on at least nonfiction works. Make them enter the public domain sooner, make it more difficult to register for copyright, perhaps require renewal half way through to prove the work is still economical, etc.
It's just obscene that the vast majority of humanity's knowledge is locked away behind copyright ridiculousness. Journals charge obscene prices to access papers, which were often funded with public money. Works sit behind copyright barriers long after the author's death and they fall out of print.
The internet could be much greater than it is. I mean sure there is a ton of content on the internet already, and wikipedia has been fantastic and collecting the world's knowledge. But there is so much stuff that only exists in books and papers, that should be publicly accessible.
See also the science section on Public Domain Day: https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2015/pre-1976 https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2015/pre-1976 and https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2016/pre-1976 https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2016/pre-1976
- zyxley 10y ago> perhaps require renewal half way through to prove the work is still economical, etc. This reminds me of one of the copyright reform ideas I've seen that has a tremendously practical approach to the power of the Mouse: an initial 20- or 40-year term, with an indefinite number of renewals of the same length allowed, but each renewal requiring filing with the Library of Congress and a substantial fee.
- userbinator 10y agobut each renewal requiring filing with the Library of Congress and a substantial fee. I believe the idea was to make the fee increase exponentially too.
- imtringued 10y agoI think the idea of renewing individual works indefinitively for a flat fee is good enough. If Disney really wants to keep Mickey Mouse and has enough money then let them keep him. But please don't forcibly delay the copyright expiration of everything else.